Welcome news on health care

There was significant and salutary news on the Lehigh Valley health care front this week. Two news stories reflected growing recognition of the need to restrain soaring costs of medical treatment.

First came word hat Muhlenberg medical Center and St. Luke's Hospital are reducing their staffs by about 10 and 5 percent, respectively. Then the Lehigh County sub-area council of the health Systems Council of Eastern Pennsylvania voted 14-2 against a proposal to build a $3.34-million free-standing facility, the Lehigh Valley Ambulatory Care Center.

The two hospitals said they were reacting to a decline in the length of hospital stays and an accompanying increase in out-patient and same-day surgery and care, together with the need to remain price-competitive. That makes good sense.

Other hospitals in the area must consider to what extent they can achieve similar economies.

The rejection of the ambulatory care center is just the first of the three tests the proposal faces. Two other Health Systems Council units must submit recommendations before the state health secretary makes the final decision.

No doubt a free-standing facility could provide efficient care at a lower cost per procedure. But as James Brush, who performed the primary analysis for the Health Systems Council rightly pointed out:

"The net impact on this community is a negative impact. it appears that any real savings attributable to patients at the Lehigh Valley Ambulatory Care Center will be more than offset by the high cost in the remaining ambulatory and in-patients at the hospital."

We noted in these columns about a week ago that the Lehigh Valley Business Conference announced its opposition to the ambulatory care center's application and called for a public hearing on this matter. The agency said it was preparing a comprehensive study on current and projected needs of Lehigh Valley health care facilities -- the first phase in which, including an evaluation of ambulatory surgery units, will be completed in March.

We concurred, saying, "It seems no more than common sense to await the results of that study before undertaking further health care projects."

Given the circumstances, it's probably impossible to hold the line on rising health care costs. Everything possible must be done, however, to contain the rate of increase.